The Jacoby Transfer One of the greatest players of all time came up with this treatment. Without doubt, it is either the most or 2nd most used convention. The is the only one that might push The Jacoby Transfer to 2nd place. Since they are complementary, and used in different circumstances it is the frequency of certain hand types not popularity that determines most used. The Jacoby Transfer has one simple criteria: does the Responder have a 5-Card Major or a 6-Card Minor. If the answer is yes, then this is the way to go. You might be surprised to see that there is no HCP requirement associated with this convention. In fact, if you have 0 HCP it is even more important that you use this convention, if you have a 5-Card Major or 6-Card Minor. The foremost reason for the transfer is two-fold. Once the transfer is completed it is guaranteed that the stronger (NT opener) hand is not exposed, as Dummy, to the opponents. Equally important; the strong hand is last to play to the first trick and has therefore best chance of gaining early control of the POTH. How Does It Work? When Partner opens 1NT and your hand meets the criteria you make an artificial bid1 that requires your partner to make another bid; the one you tell him to make. Let’s start with the Majors. If you have a 5-Card ♥ suit you think it should be but you want your Partner to be the DECLARER; so you can’t bid ♥’s yourself. You bid 2♦ telling Partner to bid 2♥. That’s why it is called a transfer, the 2♦ ‛forces’ your Partner to bid your long suit. Remember the Opener can’t have more than 1 Doubleton so the chances are 3 to 1 that the partnership will have a Magic-8 fit. You have transferred Declarer-ship to the strong hand using your long suit as Trump. If your 5-Card suit is ♠’s you bid 2♥ telling Partner to Bid 2♠ to accept transfer of Responder's suit to the strong hand. Have you noticed that, whether the Opener ‛obeys’ your ‛force’ or not, you have not yet told him how many HCP’s you have. But that’s OK. Once he accepts the transfer you have the opportunity to tell him your HCP count and you do that like this: < 8 HCP → Pass 8-9 HCP → bid 2NT 10+ HCP → bid 3NT Note that these are the same responses you would have given if the Jacoby Transfer didn‛t exist. You have now armed your partner with almost perfect information about your hand. He knows your point count with good accuracy and she knows you have a 5-Cards in the suit you transferred her to. He can then use this information to decide to play in a NoTrump or suit contract and at what level. We will now put you in the Opener’s seat so you can see how those decisions are made. This is your hand: ♠AQ4 ♥KT98 ♦KT9 ♣KJ8 Balanced with 16 HCP so you open the bidding with 1NT. Your left hand opponent Passes and your Partner responds with 2♥. You, at first, get excited to see that your Partner likes your ♥’s. Then... you remember that the 2♥ bid is a transfer, your partner really has 5+♠’s and you announce ALOUD ‟TRANSFER”. The 2♥ bid is a conventional bid which usually needs to be alerted in one way or another However, ACBL realizes the this type of bid is almost universal so rather than requiring it to be Alerted; it allows it to simply be announced as “TRANSFER”. After you complete the transfer by bidding 2♠, Partner continues with a rebid of 2NT, telling you he has 8 or 9

1 Recall that normal bids are describing a hand in standard manner so everyone understand the meaning of the bid . An artificial bid may (might be describing a special feature) or may not be describing the shape/size of a hand). Thus it is considered a conventional bid, and the opponents are entitled to know. Artificial bids require partner to bid. HCP. You add his 8 to your ‛flat’2 16 to arrive at 24 HCP. Not enough for Game, so your choices are: Pass and play 2NT with 24 HCP and 8 ♠’s or, Bid and play 3♠ Your analysis goes something like: I have to lose 3 Aces and possibly a trick to the ♠K that’s 4 tricks and there are substantial holes beneath all your K’s → it’s likely that a couple of their Q’s can be made good. In ‛normal’ trump contracts there is no advantage gained by Trumping in the long Trump hand; the benefit of Trump generally comes from using the Trump in the short hand to Trump. In this case the short suit has the bigger Trump. The bigger trump, that are usually needed to draw Trump, meaning that some advantage the Magic-8 offers may not be there. 2NT is likely the better contract choice.

Can You, as NT Opener Refuse the Transfer? If your RHO3 (right hand opponent) bids rather than Passing you may Pass. RHO’s bid has removed the transfer and taken you off the hook. If you want to end the partnership forever there is a very good chance that a Pass after Partner asks you to Transfer might do the trick.

What Do You Do when you are 5-5 in the Majors If you are 5-5 then you are guaranteed an 8-Card fit. Why the guarantee? Partner’s 1NT Opening only permits only one Doubleton which means she has at least a 3-Card suit in one of your Majors. So how do we handle this? It all depends on how many points you have. You have less than 8 HCP Bid 2♦ transferring Partner to ♥’s. Once transfer is complete you bid 2♠. Partner has to ask himself why did she transfer me to ♥’s and then bid ♠’s? Ah! Shes’ 5-5 and no points; she’s giving me the option to play 2♠ or I can bid 3♥. You have 8+ HCP Bid 2♥, transferring Partner to ♠’s. After the transfer you bid 3♥ (with 8-9 PP) or with 10+ HCP bid 4♥. In either case Partner knows your points and that you are 5-5, if she prefers ♠’s she can bid them at the appropriate level. Can You still use Jacoby if Opponents Bid? Yes!! If the Opponent uses the bid you wanted to make you can Double. A Double in this case tells partner I wanted to bid that!! Take my bid to mean the same thing our opponent just bid. Example: You wanted to bid 2♦ to transfer, the bidding goes 1NT – 2♦ – X … If in this case you had intended to bid 2♥ transferring Partner to ♠’s the bid is still available. Go ahead and bid 2♥. If Opponents bid 2♠ and you didn’t want to transfer or relay to the Minor(s) make sure you talk this situation over with Partner. The normal agreement is: any bid after 2♠ is a natural bid. Note: After Partner follows your transfer instructions and bids what you told him to bid; you normally show your points by bidding a level of NT. You do not rebid your suit. REPEAT – do not rebid your suit. There is an exception, when you have Transferred your Partner to a 6-card suit. If you bid the suit your Partner bid as a Transfer you are showing a 6-card suit. Example: 1N – 2♦ – P – 2♥; The transfer is now complete and if you bid 3♥ you are showing 6♥'s and 8-9 HCP or by bidding 4♥ you are showing 10+ HCP and 6♥'s.

2 flat means that there are no distributional points available to add to the HCP. 3334 is as flat as it gets. 4432 is semi-flat but is also referred to as flat. 5332 hands are also considered semi-flat. 3 RHO and its Companion LHO refers to Right and Left Hand Opponent Remember... a normal Transfer to a 5-card suit requires a NoTrump bid to show how many points you have. 2NT--> 8-9 HCP; 3NT –> 10+ HCP (HCP not Playing points you still don't know if there is a fit)